Mixed bag | 1 November 2012

Last year I raved about Birmingham Royal Ballet, their artistic drive, their freshness, their impeccable artistic eclecticism and, not least, their superb dancing. It was with such memories that I went to Sadler’s Wells last week, only to leave both programmes with reservations and mixed feelings. Neither programme stood out for being particularly well constructed; one, titled Opposites Attract, lacked contrast and shadings, while the other suffered from excessive stylistic idiosyncrasy. David Bintley’s Take Five, to Dave Brubeck’s luscious jazz, strived to add sparkle, but did not succeed — surprisingly, one might add, given that it has all the right ingredients to be a success. But Bintley’s known and generally admired choreo-musical inventiveness failed to produce any memorable phrasing or ideas. The steps looked contrived and the overall impression was that of ballet dancers struggling to cope with the nuances of jazz body language.

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His other work presented last week, the 2012 Faster, was not memorable either. There have been many sport-inspired ballets, starting with the 1897 Italian extravaganza Sport, which required a few hundred people on stage, including trapeze artists, cyclists, acrobats, horses and a dead tiger. Faster draws its inspiration from the recent Olympics, the spirit of which is rendered — not unlike the five-act Italian one — through choreographic numbers which refer to various disciplines. There are some good ideas, but there are also some exceedingly melodramatic moments — such as the scene with the injured athlete — and a great deal of predictable stuff, as in the case of the female swimmers. The audience seemed to love it, though, and there is no doubt that as long as Olympic fever lingers on this ballet will continue to elicit enthusiastic responses. But it does not add much to Bintley’s well-established choreographic reputation.